The Most Incredible Attempts at Perpetual Motion Machines

for thousands of years people have attempted to create perpetual motion machines without success the reason for this lack of success is of course that such a device would violate those pesky laws of physics while early attempts and perpetual motion were for the sake of curiosity and invention as well as to create interesting novelties later attempts were more pragmatic in nature if a device could be built that operated with greater than 100 efficiency it would be a free source of renewable energy again this almost certainly isn't possible and the quest for perpetual motion is like the alchemic quest for the philosopher's stone despite all science pointing to it being an impossibility the incredible magnitude of such a potential discovery is too much for many curious minded individuals to resist today we're going to be looking at some of the most incredible attempts a perpetual motion [Music] the beverly clock resides within the department of physics at the university of otago in new zealand the clock was created by arthur beverly a man with very humble upbringings bath grew up on a farm in scotland and at the age of 14 he became an apprentice watchmaker he was quite skilled as a lensmaker and he began working with scientists after he made a set of microscope lenses for the university of aberdeen at the age of 30 arthur moved to australia during the victorian gold rush his efforts in the gold fields must have not been successful because he quickly went back to watchmaking after a few more years he moved on to new zealand and opened his own watchmaking business in 1858 just six years later at the age of 42 arthur would complete work on the beverly clock once the mechanical clock was finished arthur wound it that day in 1864 was the only time it was ever wound and it is still running to this day making it one of the world's longest running science experiments so how could a mechanical clock run continuously for 158 years without being manually wound well it actually hasn't though this clock is still running there have been times when it has stopped while the beverly clock can theoretically run forever without being wound it technically has an external power source temperature the clock is not a closed system and therefore not a true perpetual motion machine but it's certainly the closest that we've ever got to one the clock works because there is an air tight box inside it that expands and contracts throughout the day based on changes in temperature this pushes on a diaphragm that lifts a one pound weight that winds the clock as it falls as long as it's raised one inch each day the clock will continue to run all it takes to raise the weight that one inch is a change in temperature of 6 degrees over the course of the day that's a very small change in temperature from the coldest point of the day to the hottest but sometimes it just doesn't happen and the clock stops whenever the temperature fluctuates more it will begin working again without needing to be manually wound but it will still have lost time and will need to be adjusted the beverly clock is a brilliant design and it was the first ever atmospheric clock but it runs at less than 100 efficiency and thus of course it's not a true perpetual motion machine despite being an incredibly impressive feat of design and because the clock is not a closed system and requires changes in temperature to power itself it quite literally would not function in a vacuum [Music] the previous attempt at perpetual motion couldn't work inside a vacuum so here's a device that is a vacuum or at least a partial vacuum the device was created by british chemist and physicist sir william crooks in 1873. he was a pioneer of vacuum tube technology so it's no wonder that he would be the one to create a vacuum sealed perpetual motion machine the crook's radiometer looks a bit like a horizontal windmill trapped inside a light bulb despite the glass bowl being airtight and near a vacuum the two toned panels inside undergo a continuous rotation unlike most attempts of perpetual motion which are deliberate efforts often consuming the creator's entire life crooks discovery was entirely an accident one day crooks was trying to get extremely accurate measurements of weight on small samples for his chemistry work so he wanted to weigh them inside a partial vacuum to reduce any interference on the measurements caused by air currents while doing this he noticed that the readings would change whenever sunlight shone directly on the balance his radiometer was built as an experiment to test the phenomena that he had observed there were several theories as to why the veins would rotate with crook's original guess being incorrect it took six years before scientists finally arrived at the correct answer the veins each featured one black side and one silver side all oriented in the same direction because darker colors absorb more heat than lighter ones the black sides of the veins would heat up when exposed to light the air molecules inside the bulb that came into contact with the hotter black side will also heat up and become agitated creating a force against the veins because it was a near vacuum there were enough air molecules to generate the force required to start the contraption spinning but not enough for air resistance to overcome the force put upon the veins the sweet spot where there is neither too little nor too much air to prevent the spinning motion is fairly precise while the initial crook's radiometer was able to work by using veins with one light side and one dark side this was proven to not be necessary in 2009 researchers at the university of texas were able to replicate the effect using veins that were all black instead of relying on one color to make one side hotter than the other it utilized curved veins whereas previous efforts had all used flat ones because of the curvature of the structures the convex side of the veins would heat up more than the concave side thus creating the same effect the crook's radiometer has the ability to continue rotating forever without an internal power source but once again it is not a closed system and it requires external forces for its continued operation many light mills have been built since crix's original though they serve little purpose outside classroom demonstrations or as a novelty but if this is the sort of novelty that appeals to you can find them on amazon for around thirty dollars yay what makes this entry so incredible is less the idea itself and more that a respected scientist and inventor was absolutely convinced that this could work so william congress was an inventor of some renown enough renown to be knighted apparently among his inventions were a color printing press and a new form of steam engine most notable of his inventions was a concrete rocket an early form of rocket artillery for military use for an inventor of such ability one would think he would have better things to do than focus on the fool's errands that his perpetual motion but he didn't at least at the end of his life while recovering from an illness congregate drew up plans for a sponge-powered perpetual motion design the most impressive thing about his design is that it took design elements from already disproven perpetual motion machines and combined them into one big soggy mess his machine would combine the properties of an unbalanced wheel a plank and chain and the capillary effect individually none of these ideas create a perpetual motion but maybe just maybe by combining a bunch of insufficient ideas it would create something truly remarkable the proposed machine featured a conveyor belt covered in sponges on the outside of the sponges was another belt of heavy weight the sponges would travel under the bottom of the machine through the water reservoir before being lifted onto the conveyor once on the conveyor the weights would squeeze the water out of the sponges to make them lighter at the top of the conveyor a hose supplying water through capillary effect would soak the sponges again making them heavy enough to drag the rest of the belt down now if that sounds confusing and needlessly complicated well it absolutely is congreve never built the machine himself nor did anyone else as far as is known anyone with the ability to construct such a machine should immediately understand that it's not going to work and they're relying on already disproven unfailed methods of creating perpetual motion since congreve designed this while recovering from being sick it would be nice to just chalk it up to being some sort of fever dream but no he actually defended the idea at his own expense congress published a pamphlet to defend the principles behind the machine and put forward his belief that it would absolutely work perhaps this was just done to try and save face but it is truly incredible that such an accomplished scientist and inventor would not only design but then defend such a ridiculous contraption [Music] the oxford electric bell also known as the clarendon dry pile is not what most people would think of when they think of perpetual motion devices the reason is that it's operated by a battery so why are we talking about it in today's video because the bell has been ringing almost non-stop for the last 182 years the bell was constructed by instrument makers watkins and hill it's believed to have been constructed in 1825 but there's no way to know for sure what is known is that it was purchased in 1840 by clergyman and professor of physics reverend robert walker and it has been on display at oxford university in england since then it's located adjacent to the clarendon laboratory hence the alternate name the term dry pile comes from the type of battery used it is the predecessor to the modern tri-cell battery and it is constructed by assembling a pile of discs of different alternating materials to create electrical charges the oxford electric bell has two dry piles each above a bell to which it is connected between the two bells is a four millimeter metal sphere that acts as the clapper when the metal sphere comes into contact with one of the bells it receives a tiny electrostatic charge that repels it sending it to the other bell this process has been repeated over 10 billion times since it's been on display the apparatus has operated nearly continuously with only small occasional periods of interruption resulting from exceptionally high humidity it may not be perpetual but how exactly has the guinness world record holder for most durable battery been able to remain fully functional for nearly two centuries and how much longer will the bells continue to ring the answer to both of these questions is we have absolutely no idea there are no schematics or notes to indicate exactly what the battery is made out of all we have is the device itself the two dry piles are coated in a layer of molten sulfur to protect from atmospheric disturbances this leaves them looking more like giant wax candles than batteries and it makes it impossible to see the inner workings there is speculation as to what materials the battery is made out of based on other contemporary research however there are no other existing batteries known to have run for nearly so long so it would stand to reason that these batteries had something different about them if you're wondering why researchers don't just disassemble the batteries to see what they're made out of well that would ruin the world's longest running experiment oxford university has waited 182 years for the bells to stop ringing so surely they can wait a little bit longer or maybe a few centuries longer we genuinely don't have any idea on the bright side the oxford electric bell is now kept behind two layers of glass so the ringing is virtually inaudible rather than being a constant source of insanity for oxford students of physics how incredible is this device created in 2016 by youtuber the project one incredible enough to get nearly four million views the machine is incredibly simple it features a simple wooden frame placed on top of a wooden plank the plank is then balanced on a wooden dowel and two balls are placed inside the apparatus you can then watch the seesaw rock back and forth as the balls roll from one end of the chamber to the other according to the video it works because the center of a mass of the system is continually changing each ball pushes the opposite side of the board causing the oscillation this is of course a complete and total fabrication how it actually works is by either strings or more likely pistons connected to the bottom of the plank that can actually be seen in the video itself if someone is looking carefully the seesaw rocks in perfect rhythm regardless of the actual position of the balls incredibly despite being an obvious hoax many people who saw the video believed it was a real machine quite possibly millions of people did the appeal of what it being real could mean is too much for our rational brains to overcome even when the true explanation is right in front of our eyes the simple fact is that true perpetual motion machines will never exist devices like the beverly clark and the crooks radiometer show that it is possible to build a machine that can harness outside forces to power itself but those forces still need to exist there will never be a closed system device that can run at 100 or greater than 100 efficiency because it violates the laws of the conservation of energy the united states government is so sure of this as they should be that the u.s patent office no longer accepts patent submissions for perpetual motion machines if you'd like to learn more about that you can find the 1940 short something for nothing featuring cartoonist and inventor of wacky and impractical devices rube goldberg discussing patents and the impossibility of perpetual motion devices and also discussing how great and limitless fossil fuel is because somebody had to pay to get that video made we suppose and that somebody was probably the automotive industry and this video was brought to you by the it wasn't it wasn't but i do hope you enjoyed it thank you so much for watching and i'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Sideprojects

Views: 4,295,930

Keywords: megaprojects, construction, engineering, projects, Perpetual Motion Machines, perpetual motion, perpetual motion machine, top 10 perpetual motion machines, perpetual motion idea, perpetual motion machines that work, perpetuum mobile, perpetual motion devices, perpetual machine, perpetual motion device, motum perpetuum machina, perpetual motion machine magnets, history of perpetual motion machines, perpetual motion machines never work

Id: JPw58clq9EQ

Length: 13min 5sec (785 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 11 2022